"US Troops target Civilians"

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've certainly read this headline and seen its ensuing video since it all went viral Monday thanks to Wikilinks.

Now, on the off chance you haven't seen the video, I'll embed it below:

This is the full 38 minute video, not the edited for excitement 17 minute video most people have seen. What you are watching is an Apache attack helicopter crew observe, attempt to identify, and engage suspected insurgents. Unfortunately, amongst the insurgents, was a Reuters film crew. Actually, they were locals "contracted" to get video clips of foreign fighters and insurgents engaging and killing Coalition troops. It is very, very easy to sit back and Monday morning QB the actions of the crew in this video from the comfort of our living rooms on our personal computers with our IPhones buzzing in the background.

Unfortunately, when you're in the heat of combat, you don't have the luxury of time. You go with what you see, and can logically infer. So let's take a look at the two incidents and treat them semi-separately.

1st, the killing of the cameraman and "reporter"

1. This took place at the beginning of Gen. Petraeus' "Surge". Combat and insurgent activity were very high.
2. The "reporter" and "cameraman" were with insurgents while those insurgents were on an operation to kill and maim US and Coalition troops.
3. From a gun camera, the "cameraman's" camera looks an awful lot like a rocket launcher, particularly when you're trying to decide whether or not the men you're watching are trying to kill your fellow soldiers. Nobody wants to be the guy who didn't pull the trigger and then have his buddies killed later.

When taken together, perhaps this wasn't the smartest choice for the Reuters contractors. Interviewing insurgents from a safe house is one thing, actually going along with and participating on an op with them? I'd say both men are guilty of having terminal stupidity.

Now, with all that said, it is also obvious that the Apache crew were jumpy and overstated the threat a bit. The caveat here being that this incident didn't occur in a vacuum. Insurgent activity was high, patrols were being attacked almost hourly, and mens lives were on the line. They don't call it "The Fog of War" for nothing. 

Second event, the shooting up of the "Ambulance" with children in it. Civilian deaths are always regrettable, and the US Military has a policy of minimizing civilian casualties if at all possible. Sometimes to the point of costing US Servicemen their lives (Mogadishu, and the current ROE in Afghanistan). 

Let me be quite frank here, while I have sympathy for the children, I have none for parents who knowingly and intentionally put their children in harms way. This wasn't the first such case of insurgents using women and children as human shields, nor will it be the last. I've heard at least a score of first-hand accounts from soldiers on the ground who held their fire because they saw women and children in a vehicle only to have a homicide bomber detonate the vehicle moments later.

Gallows humor aside, this is something that will haunt those I've spoken with about it until the day they die. It takes a certain type of grit in a man to regularly go into harm's way and kill his fellow man.  Orwell said (correctly quoted) "Those who ‘abjure’ violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf". Thankfully, the US military has men and women willing to do so without question to the cost of their lives for us here on the home front. That said, while there are few who, when being honest, will willingly shoot women and children unless there is no other choice. Any statements to the contrary don't stand up to objective scrutiny. If our men and women in uniform callously mowed down all innocents, insurgents and homicide bombers wouldn't use them as human shields in the first place. Yes the gun crew was looking for any excuse, because that is what the rules of engagement dictate to them. War is so much easier when politicians and lawyers don't step in and unnecessarily complicate it. When they do Mosques become bases and weapons caches as well as playing host to snipers while our soldiers get wounded and killed with no recourse.

The people in this video were lending a helping hand to armed insurgents who had been preparing an ambush against coalition forces. Maybe they were Good Samaritans, maybe they were concerned friends and relatives. Maybe they just wanted to pick up extra weapons and supplies and prevent the wounded from falling into US hands for interrogation.

The point is, they were in the middle of a combat zone and intentionally took their children on an operation. At the end of the day, this was the choice the parents made. 

Critics should take care to note that no other force in the breadth of military history has ever taken as great of pains, often to the detriment of its own soldiers, as the US Military when it comes to minimizing civilian deaths.